for Rome, Ethelred promising not to disturb his monasteries in Mercia before he heard how his appeal was decided. In spite of his seventy years he performed the journey on foot, taking with him Acca [q. v.], then a priest, as his companion. Before his departure Aldhelm [q. v.], then abbot of Malmesbury, wrote a letter to Wilfrid's clergy, exhorting them to be faithful to him (Gesta Pontificum, p. 338). On his way he visited Willibrord, then archbishop of Utrecht, who was carrying on the evangelisation of the Frisians. He reached Rome in 704.
Soon after his arrival, Brihtwald's representatives also came to Rome to accuse him. John VI held a synod on his case, at which Wilfrid was present, and his petition was read. His opponents accused him of setting at nought the archbishop's decrees, but he was pronounced blameless. It is said that the proceedings in his case lasted during four months and through seventy sittings. Finally, the pope confirmed the decision of his predecessors, and wrote to Ethelred and Aldfrid that Brihtwald was to hold a synod and endeavour to come to a satisfactory settlement, and that if he failed to do so both parties were to appear at Rome. Wilfrid desired to end his days at Rome, but was bidden by the pope to return to England. On his way home he was seized with a severe illness and carried into Meaux in a state of unconsciousness. He afterwards told Acca that the archangel Michael had appeared to him, had promised that he should be spared for four years more, and directed him to build a church in honour of the Virgin. He landed in Kent in 705 and was reconciled with Brihtwald. He visited Ethelred, then abbot of Bardney in Lincolnshire, and Ethelred wrote to his successor Coenred [q. v.] on his behalf. Aldfrid, however, to whom Wilfrid sent messengers, refused to alter his decision. He died shortly afterwards and was succeeded by Eadwulf, to whom Wilfrid sent messengers from Ripon. Eadwulf bade them take back word that Wilfrid was to leave his kingdom within six days, but he was himself driven out after a reign of two months, and was succeeded in 705 by Aldfrid's son Osred (697?–716) [q. v.], who at once held a council on the banks of the Nidd to decide on Wilfrid's case. The abbess Ælflaed having announced that Aldfrid on his deathbed had declared that if he lived he would fulfil the pope's commands concerning Wilfrid, and that if he died she was to charge his son to do so, it was determined to carry out Aldfrid's wish. The king, bishops, and nobles made peace with Wilfrid and restored to him the see of Hexham and the monastery of Ripon. The dispute therefore ended in a compromise by which Wilfrid surrendered his claim to York, receiving instead the see of Hexham; while on the other hand the scheme of erecting Ripon into an episcopal see was dropped, and the possession of the church was secured to him. In spite of his appeals to Rome he was not in so good a position as that in which he was left by Theodore's subdivision in 678.
While Wilfrid was bishop of Hexham a foolish charge of heresy was made against Bede in his presence. This drew from Bede his ‘Letter to Plegwin,’ which he desired should be read before Wilfrid, for Jarrow was in the diocese of Hexham (Bright, p. 429; Plummer, Bede, i. Introd. App. i. p. cxlvi. In the article on Bede, as well as by Smith, Bede, App. p. 802, and Raine, Fasti, p. 93, this incident is erroneously connected with another Wilfrid, who was bishop of York from 718 to 732). Early in the spring of 708 he was seized with sickness. He recovered, and about a year and a half later, in 709, made his will by word of mouth at Ripon, dividing all his treasure into four parts, of which he assigned the most valuable to the churches of St. Mary and of St. Paul at Rome, and left the other three to the poor, to the provosts of Ripon and Hexham for the benefit of their monasteries, and to the companions of his exile. He announced to his monks that Ceolred of Mercia had sent to invite him to come to him about matters connected with his Mercian monasteries, arranged for the election of an abbot to succeed him at Ripon in case he should not live to return, and bade the monks farewell. He was again seized with sickness at his monastery at Oundle in Northamptonshire, and died while the monks were singing Psalm civ. 30, on a Thursday, probably 3 Oct., in his seventy-sixth year (on the date see Bright, p. 433 n. 1; Plummer, Bede, ii. 328). He was buried in his church at Ripon, and an epitaph, recorded by Bede, was set up on his tomb. Archbishop Odo is said to have removed his body to Canterbury (Preface to Frithegode's Vita S. Wilfridi ap. Historians of York, i. 106), where it was translated by Lanfranc, and moved a second time soon afterwards, on 12 Oct. (ib. pp. 225–6). St. Oswald, however, is said to have found his bones at Ripon (ib. p. 462). Eadmer alleges that the bones found at Ripon were those of the younger Wilfrid, and defends the Canterbury claim, which is said to have been supported by heavenly signs (ib. i. 235–7, ii. 31–2). Archbishop Walter de Grey [q. v.] translated the
